Prakash Javadekar, the Union Environment and Forest Minister, today called as malicious and incorrect a recent report that said that pollution in India had worsened so much that it has shortened the human lifespan by a few years.

Without quoting the source of the report, Javadekar said that it was “malicious and incorrect, especially coming, as it does, on the eve of the prime minister’s visit to the US.”

Speaking to the reporters in Coimbatore at an interactive session with the Coimbatore-based industrialists, he said that the report was not based on rxact data or growth study, and claimed that the print and TV were conspiring to highlight the report in order to “put down Modiji’s government.”

“The Central Pollution Control Board is issuing a detailed response to the report on the high level of pollution in the country,” he said.

Drawing comparison with the pollution in the American and European cities, he said that “targeting India in this fashion is incorrect.”

He also assured that the GST bill will be passed in this monsoon session and implemented next year.